I'm always behind the curve, time wise, in seeing the best movies, but I just saw Moneyball with Brad Pitt about a couple of weeks ago. Suddenly, I started comparing politics with baseball, again, as I did with "Leo's Maxim" some time ago. In Moneyball, basically, the Brad Pitt character had to deal with the lowest budget, or close to it, of all the other major league teams in baseball, yet also try to build a competing team for the American League championship. Pitt's character, Billy Beane, the General Manager, succeeded by making the playoffs in the year 2002 by having one of the best records in A.L. history, 103 victories, and setting the A.L. record for the most consecutive victories in history, 20 in a row.
Beane and his Asst. General Manager devised a system of using statistics to overcome their money disadvantage and it proved that numbers can override money with persistence and strategy. I believe that the same principle can apply to politics, and it already has in different ways. I believe that third party politics can work in America with numbers and persistence even without significant money. It almost worked in various places around the country -- and this isn't about the Tea Party -- until the 3rd parties started doing stupid stuff. For instance, a successful Green Party candidate for the Assembly in California deciding to run away from her party when it was time for her re-election campaign (she lost). President Barack Obama's "organizing principle" isn't so bad as Queen Hillary makes it out to be, after all.
People may say all of this is ridiculous since even the so-called Tea Party, that co-opts Republican politics rather than standing as their own independent party, had significant backing from "Wall Street" figures until a divided Wall Street figured out that the Tea Party's laissez faire, survival-of the-fittest politics was little more friendly to them than the common man that sometimes needs government help to keep the stacked-against-him odds from tumbling over like a set of dominoes gone awry.
However, numbers, persistence and strategy for a real independent 3rd party can overcome the odds & big money. Half the battle in politics is getting the electorate to take you seriously and believing that you have at least an outside chance of winning, because believe it or not, people do seem to be more strategic-oriented when voting, by and large, than conviction-oriented. Having a full slate of candidates on the ballot in state and federal races takes relatively little money, and if nothing else would get a lot of media attention, so it amazes me that some of the more well known national minor parties don't even attempt to accomplish that feat. Even one or two stars would make a difference, though, and that's not about to be me.
Like Beane's A's, the Revived Citizens Party will work with numbers, persistence and strategy to at least win a few offices in the 2015-16 period, but we can only it do it with people; read: volunteers, and would-be candidates that will actually run, and the '02 Oakland Athletics weren't exactly penniless, so please send $10-or-more contributions to Mark Greene/Revived Citizens Party, P.O. Box 612, Bellevue, WA 98009. Thanks!
-- Chairman of the Revived Citizens Party, Mark Greene
Note: a good post for potential Citizens Party members/candidates to read: "One or a Few Good Congress/Local Candidates Wanted."
Beane and his Asst. General Manager devised a system of using statistics to overcome their money disadvantage and it proved that numbers can override money with persistence and strategy. I believe that the same principle can apply to politics, and it already has in different ways. I believe that third party politics can work in America with numbers and persistence even without significant money. It almost worked in various places around the country -- and this isn't about the Tea Party -- until the 3rd parties started doing stupid stuff. For instance, a successful Green Party candidate for the Assembly in California deciding to run away from her party when it was time for her re-election campaign (she lost). President Barack Obama's "organizing principle" isn't so bad as Queen Hillary makes it out to be, after all.
People may say all of this is ridiculous since even the so-called Tea Party, that co-opts Republican politics rather than standing as their own independent party, had significant backing from "Wall Street" figures until a divided Wall Street figured out that the Tea Party's laissez faire, survival-of the-fittest politics was little more friendly to them than the common man that sometimes needs government help to keep the stacked-against-him odds from tumbling over like a set of dominoes gone awry.
However, numbers, persistence and strategy for a real independent 3rd party can overcome the odds & big money. Half the battle in politics is getting the electorate to take you seriously and believing that you have at least an outside chance of winning, because believe it or not, people do seem to be more strategic-oriented when voting, by and large, than conviction-oriented. Having a full slate of candidates on the ballot in state and federal races takes relatively little money, and if nothing else would get a lot of media attention, so it amazes me that some of the more well known national minor parties don't even attempt to accomplish that feat. Even one or two stars would make a difference, though, and that's not about to be me.
Like Beane's A's, the Revived Citizens Party will work with numbers, persistence and strategy to at least win a few offices in the 2015-16 period, but we can only it do it with people; read: volunteers, and would-be candidates that will actually run, and the '02 Oakland Athletics weren't exactly penniless, so please send $10-or-more contributions to Mark Greene/Revived Citizens Party, P.O. Box 612, Bellevue, WA 98009. Thanks!
-- Chairman of the Revived Citizens Party, Mark Greene
Note: a good post for potential Citizens Party members/candidates to read: "One or a Few Good Congress/Local Candidates Wanted."
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